WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative David Schweikert (AZ-01) delivered a speech on the House Floor this week, connecting the idea that since Congress has such a hard time doing math, members tend to just believe whichever information is most comfortable and accessible, thus lying to the American people about how serious our debt crisis has become. Rep. Schweikert also discussed the chaos that fake news-spreading bots cause in our society, and in turn, sets a precedent for national leaders, like our very own President Biden, to follow suit. He closes his speech by shedding light on the Left creating a perpetual subsidy demand cycle instead of promoting technology disruption, encouraging competition, and allowing the American economy to flourish.
Excerpts from Rep. Schweikert’s floor speech can be found below:
Click here or on the image above to view Rep. Schweikert’s remarks.
On reminding America that every dime voted on in Congress is borrowed money:
[Beginning at 2:32]
“I like to start with this chart because it lays out where we are at today. You see the red. Seventy-four percent of the spending, in that red area, is on autopilot. We don’t get to vote on it. Do you see the blue? That is defense and nondefense discretionary [spending]. I get to vote on that. Every dime of it is borrowed. And guess what? Interest [spending] — where the Treasury [Department] sells the bond —we are selling $111 billion in three different auctions this week just to finance our insatiable spending. Remember, and this is one of the things that I find even at home is uncomfortable, 100% of the borrowing from today through the next 30 years according to [the Congressional Budget Office] is interest, Medicare, and if a decade from now we backfill Social Security. It’s demographics. And yet, how do you make policy?”
On members of the Democratic Party using disinformation to spread propaganda:
[Beginning at 17:15]
“It turns out a number of Democrat activists are actually setting up fake newspapers. Now, [as if] it wasn’t bad enough, one of these articles in there actually has a section talking about that in American small-town newspapers, as many as half are actually fake. My wife pointed out to me that there was a newspaper from southern Kansas, where she grew up, that went out of business decades ago, and somehow popped up in her news feed and it had this crazy stuff in it. Turns out, that was on the list of the ones that have been sort of spoofed— a spoof URL, looking like it’s from Russia. Think about that — in America, about half of the small-town newspapers you see are actually fake. How many of our constituents know that? It’s like the Democrats actually have decided, ‘Hey, this a great business model. Let’s make up fake newspapers online, have it laced with left-wing propaganda, and we’ll do it under a newspaper masthead.’ Great. How is this not a violation? Once again, the Left proves they’re a hell of a lot smarter than we are when it comes to being [merciless] on campaigns. They figured out a way to get around campaign finance laws. Spend money, but it’s free speech. It’s fake, but it’s free speech.”
On not allowing disruption to take place in America:
[Beginning at 27:22]
“One of the slides I wanted to show you was once again another concept of why the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act is the most Orwellian named piece of legislation in modern history. They’re very proud of saying, “We’re subsidizing electric cars!” My wife has an electric car. She loves it! The data basically said, when they passed that, I came here to the floor and showed, “Hey, here’s the survey data. Almost everyone that’s going to buy an electric car is buying them with the subsidy [or] without the subsidy. It’s a lifestyle, it’s personal. It’s almost a status symbol, but let’s give away billions and billions of dollars.” Now you actually have breakthroughs. Could you imagine if just a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that resource had gone into more primary research? [It] looks like there’s been a breakthrough on solar cells, — ‘an additional 25.7% efficiency.’ Yay! Except, the problem is, it was developed in China. The very people who preach at us — ‘let’s subsidize all this stuff, but let’s subsidize last generation’s or maybe even the generation before that’s technology!” You want me to put solar panels on my house? You want us to drive electric cars? You want this? Make it so economically sensible, make it so affordable, that it is the disruption. Why did you stop going to Blockbuster Video? Because you had a button you could hit at home and stream videos right to your home. Was that subsidized by the government? The fact of the matter is there’s technology disruptions. Why didn’t we fixate on that? Turns out, maybe the disruptions don’t write checks to your campaign.“
###
Congressman David Schweikert serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and is the current Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee. He is also the Vice Chairman on the bicameral Joint Economic Committee, chairs the Congressional Valley Fever Task Force, and is the Republican Co-Chair of the Blockchain Caucus, Telehealth Caucus, Singapore Caucus, and the Caucus on Access to Capital and Credit.